Best, Hottest, Quickest Way to Land Your Release in the Trash

I know you are psyched about your product and want us all to feel the same, but using too many adjectives, or tired adjectives, will have the opposite effect you intended. Instead of boosting the stature of your product or service, too many adjectives are a good way to sap the credibility from your company.

In a recent analysis of 3,000 press releases by PRFilter, words like leading, best, top and innovative appeared hundreds of times. Innovative, I’ll admit, is a good word but it tends to be overused. When reporters see a word over and over, they can become desensitized to its meaning and the message you are trying to convey is lost.

Same goes for superlatives, such as best, most effective and top. Is your product really the best way to lose weight? Is your computer service really most effective at repairing crashed laptops? I was taught long ago not to put anything into a press release that isn’t true. While these statements aren’t all-out lies, the exaggerations don’t do your company any favors.

Before you trash that press release draft you worked on all morning, chin up. It could never be as bad as this testament to the pitfalls of hyperbole.